Column carrying mechanism in calculating machine and the like apparatus

ABSTRACT

In a calculating machine or the like apparatus having a plurality of vertically movable rack bars arranged in side-byside parallel relation and accumulator gears cooperating with each of said rack bars, a cam is provided on each accumulator gear, while a first lever to be operated by said cam is provided on one side of each rack bar, and a second lever is connected to the first lever to be operated thereby. When the first lever is lowered by the cam upon rotation of the accumulator gear, the second lever is also lowered by the first lever and pushed by a push rod in its lowered position, whereby the rack bar is lowered and at the same time the second lever of the adjacent rack bar is pushed by the second lever of the first-mentioned rack bar, so that the adjacent rack bar is also lowered, and thus the column is carried.

United States Patent Inventor Keoji Mlyake Kuniiachi'shi, Japan Appl.No. 889,167 Filed Dec. 30, 1969 Patented June 15, 1971 Assignee CitizenWatch Co., Ltd.

Tokyo, Japan Priority July 3, 1969 Japan 44152625 COLUMN CARRYINGMECHANISM IN CALCULATING MACHINE AND THE LIKE APPARATUS 2 Claims, 5Drawing Figs.

US. (I 235/137 Int. Cl G06c 15/26 Field oISearch..; 235/137, 134, 142,I43

Primary Examiner- Stephen J. Tomsky Anorney-l-Iall, Pollock & VandeSande ABSTRACT: In a calculating machine or the like apparatus having aplurality of vertically movable rack bars arranged in side-by-sideparallel relation and accumulator gears cooperating with each of saidrack bars, a cam is provided on each accumulator gear, while a firstlever to be operated by said cam is provided on one side of each rackbar, and a second lever is connected to the first lever to be operatedthereby. When the first lever is lowered by the cam upon rotation of theaccumulator gear, the second lever is also lowered by the first leverand pushed by a push rod in its lowered position, whereby the rack baris lowered and at the same time the second lever of the adjacent rackbar is pushed by the second lever of the firstmentioned rack bar, sothat the adjacent rack bar is also lowered, and thus the column iscarried.

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ATTORNEY PATENTEDJWSBII 3584.780

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ATTORNEY PATENTEDJUN15I97I 3584780 SHEET u 0F 5 INVENTOR HE/VJI MIYAKEBY HoMfMaWSM ATTORNEY lllllllllllll INVENTOR KENJI M/YAKE BY 2M?ATTORNEY COLUMN CARRYING MECHANISM IN CALCULATING MACHINE AND THE LIKEAPPARATUS The present invention relates to a column carrying mechanismin a calculating machine or the like apparatus.

In a conventional column carrying mechanism including rack bars and anaccumulator, each gear must be revolved one pitch upon completion of onecomplete revolution of the preceding gear for a lower column, to effectcolumn carrying. This is obviously attained by a column carryingmechanism. When the one pitch motion is transmitted to a gear in anaccumulator which is about to complete its full revolution, onepitch'motion of a gear in the higher column is further caused, and thusa chain of motion takes place. In this way, the motions of clutchesassociated with the respective gears are induced successively. In otherwords, the motion of the rack for an upper column is commenced uponcompletion of the motion of the rack for a lower column. Therefore, thetime required for the completion of a column carrying operation is thesum of the times required for the movement of the individual racksassociated with the numerals set. Namely, the conventional columncarrying mechanism has the drawback that the time required for thecolumn carrying operation is undesirably long. Such drawback has abearing on the calculation cycle, making it impossible to increase thespeed of said cycle.

In view of the above, the present invention has for its object theprovision of a column carrying mechanism which is so designed that allof the racks. participating in the column carr-ying operation arelowered one pitch in the same period of time, whereby the time requiredfor the column carrying operation can be minimized.

According to the present invention, there is provided a column carryingmechanism in a calculating machine having a large number of verticallymovable rack bars arranged in sideby-side parallel relation andaccumulator gears meshing with said respective rack bars, whichcomprises a link mechanism which is operated more than about one toothin the column carrying operation by a cam provided on the higher columnside of said gear, and means for lowering the rack bars for the nexthigher column one tooth from the "-position upon engaging only with saidoperated link mechanism and displacing the same, said link mechanismhaving a member which, when said link mechanism is operated more thanabout one-half tooth, causes displacement of all of the link mechanismsfor the next higher column relative to said operated link mechanism byengagement therewith and further lowers the rack bar for the column onetooth.

The present invention will appear more clearly from the followingdetailed description when taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, showing by way of example a preferred embodiment of theinvention. In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is a side view of a preferred embodiment of the column carryingmechanism according to the present invention in the state before a gearfor the place of l and a rack bar for the place of before are placed inmotion;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the mechanism showing the positions ofa gearfor the place of 10 and a rack bar for the place of 100 before thecolumn carrying operation;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the mechanism showing the positions of the gearfor the place of 1 and the rack bar for the place of I0 before thecolumn carrying operation;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the mechanism showing the positions of theparts for the place of 1 and for the place of 10 after the columncarrying operation; and

FIG. 5 is a view as viewed from the line A-Aof FIG. 3.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, numeral I designates a rack bar commonly usedin a calculating machine, 2 a stopper for a numeral setting carriage(not shown) and 5 a sector which is provided with types 50 and formedwith two projections 5b, 50 at the downwardly extending portion thereof.Numeral 3 designates a lowering bar which will move the sector 5downwardby engagement with the projection 5b against the biasing forceof a spring 4. The sector 5 is also provided with a pin 28 which isreceived in a slot 31 formed in the rack bar I. A spring 32 has one endanchored to the projection 5c of the sector 5 and the other end to aprojection la of the rack bar I.

A pair of gears 8 and 9 are rotatably mounted on fixed shafts 6 and 7respectively in opposed relation to each rack bar 1 for engagementtherewith. Each rack bar 1 has a longitudinal slot lb formed therein, inwhich is slidably received a fixed cross bar 10 for guiding a verticalmovement of said rack bar. On the left side or the higher column side ofeach rack bar I is provided a first lever 11 having teeth 11a and llb.In the illustrations of FIGS. 1 to 3, the lever 11 for the next lowercolumn relative to the rack bar 1 is shown. These teeth are parallel toteeth 10 of the rack bar 1 and engageable with halftooth shaped cams 8aand 9a which are provided on one side of the accumulator gears 8 and 9respectively. The first lever 11 also has teeth I10 and 11d adapted forengagement with the cross bar 10, a projection 15 for engagement with areturn bar 21 to be described later, a projection 16 having one end of aspring 17 anchored thereto, the other end of said spring being anchoredto a fixed member of the machine, and a projection I8 slidably receivedin a slot formed in a fixed support plate 19. A second lever 22 isconnected to the first lever 11- by a pin 29 and has a roller 23 whichcan roll on the fixed sup port plate I9 and engages-a cam surface 27 onthe underside of the rack bar 1. The second lever 22 is also formed witha 5 projection 25 which is in engagement with a slot formed in the fixedsupport plate I9. An end 30 of the second lever 22 is provided with arightwardly extending horizontal tongue 31 at the lower portion thereofand a leftwardly extending vertical tongue 32 at the end extremity. Apush rod 33 is located in front of the tongue 32 and caused to movetowards the second lever 22 at the end of the downward movement of therack bar 1 which is caused by the lowering bar 3 as will be describedhereinafter. The fixed support plate 19 has a comblike shape and isprovided with a tongue 34.

The mechanism constructed as described above will operate as follows:With reference to FIG. 5, let it be supposed that numeral 8" ismemorized by a gear 9-1 which is for memorizing a numeral in the'place land numeral 8" isalso memorized by a gear 9-2 which is for memorizing anumeral in the place of 10, or in other words, numeral 88" is memorizedby the respective gears. When numeral I2 is to be added, for example,the cam 9a of the gear. which memorized numeral 8," is located above thetooth I lb of the first lever 11.

First of all, numeral l is set, whereupon the stopper 2a correspondingto numeral 1 is projected as indicated by the chain line in FIG. I. Thesame thing occurs when numeral 2 in the place of 10 is set. Upon settingthe machine in motion to perform one cycle of operation, all of thegears 9 are moved to the right all at once to be spaced from therespective rack bars I and the lowering bars 3 move upward successivelythereafter, so that only the sectors and the rack bars (not shown) forthe place of l and the place of 10 are allowed to move upward until theprojection 1d of each rack bar 1 abuts against the stopper 20.

Then, each gear 9 is moved to the left and engages the rack bar I.Thereafter, the lowering bars 3 move downward, whereby the rack bars forthe place of I and the place of 10 are moved downward, while rotatingthe respective gears 9 in the direction of the arrow A. FIG. 2 shows theoperation for the place of 10. The gear 92 for the place of 10 isrotated one tooth incident to setting numeral "1." In this case, thetooth 11b of the first lever 11 is pushed by the rotating cam 9a and thefirst lever 11 is moved down to the position of FIG. 2. Therefore, thesecond lever 22, connected to the first lever 11 by the pin 29, iscaused to make a pivotal movement about the roller 23 in a clockwisedirection, to the position shown.

The gear 9-1 for the place of 1 takes the position shown in FIG. 3.Namely, the first lever I1 is further moved downward by the cam 9a, andas a result the tooth 11d is disengaged from the cross bar I0 and the.lever 11 is tilted as shown under the biasing force of the spring 1 7.Now, the projection 15 is located closer to the return bar 21 and thetongue 32 is lowered to a position confronting the push rod 33. As aresult of the above-described operation, the tongue 32a of the secondlever 22 for'the place of 1 is located in the lowest position and thetongue 32b of the second lever 22 for the place of is located in aone-step lowered position as shown in H6. 5.

Then, the push rod 33 is moved to the left in the direction of the arrowBand pushes the tongue 32a of the second lever 22 for the place of .10which has been lowered most as shown in FIG. 5. This state is shown inFIG. 4. As a result of the leftward movement of the second lever 22, thetongue 32 of said second lever abuts against the tongue 31a of theadjacent second lever for theplace of 100 which has been lowered to anintermediate position, and pushes the same. Thus, both of the secondlevers 22, 220 are moved to the left and the respective rack bars 1 areallowed to move down one step due to displacement of the rollers 23 inengagement with the cam surfaces 27 of said respective rack bars.Therefore, the gears for the place of 10 and the place of 100 arerotated one tooth and further the tongues'3l are placed below thetongues 34 of the support plates 19 to hold the respective second leversagainst upward movement.

All of the second levers for the places other than those mentioned aboveare held inoperative.

Then, all of the gears 9 are moved to the right to be spaced from thecorresponding rack bars and the respective numerals are memorized by thegears 9-2 and 9-3 for the place 10 and the place of 100, with numeral ladded thereto, that is to say.that numeral 100" is memorized. This meansthat the column carrying has been accomplished. Finally, the bar 33 ismoved to the right and the return bar 21 is moved to the right in thedirection of the arrow C to return the first lever 11 and the secondlever 22 to their original positions. By this step, one cycle of columncarrying operation has been completed.

As will be clearly understood from the foregoing, according to thepresent invention only the rack bar for the column which is to becarried up is lowered one tooth and the rack bar meshing with thegearwhich memorizes numeral 9" in the higher place is loweredsimultaneously, so that the column carrying can be effected concurrentlyand the operation time can be shortened.

In the above-mentioned embodiment the first lever 11 has the teeth 11aand [1b. However, the first lever 11 may be provided with a singletooth. In this case the gear 8 and the gear 9 should be engagedalternatively.

What I claim is:

1. A column carrying mechanism in a calculating machine or the likeapparatus of the type comprising toothed rack bars l) and an accumulatorcomprising gears 8, 9) having cam means (8a,9a), said mechanism furthercomprising a first lever (11) arranged adjacent each rack bar (1) andadapted to engage said cams (8a,9a) on said accumulator gears (8, 9),said first lever being moved by one of said cams (8aor 9a) as said camcompletes its one revolution,

a second lever (22) adapted to oscillate vertically under the control ofsaid first lever (11) and having a member (23) in engagement with saidrack bars l a fixed cross bar 10) extending through a longitudinal slotformed in said rack bar (1), and

a push rod (33) for actuating each second lever (22) when the associatedfirst lever (11) is latched by said fixed cross bar (10) upon beinglowered by said cam (8aor 9a) of said gear (8 or 9), said mechanismbeing operative in such a manner that when the first lever (11) islowered by the cam (8aor 9a) of the gear (8 or 9), the second lever (22)is brought to a position confronting the push rod (33) and pushed bysaid push rod (33), whereby only the rack bar (1) associated with saidpushed second lever 22) is lowered one pitch and concurrently the columnassociated with said rack bar is carried.

2. A column carrying mechanism as defined in claim 1,

wherein said second lever 22) is grovided with a horizontal tongue (31)and a vertical tongue 2), said horizontal tongue (31) being insertedbelow a fixed part (34) to retain said second lever (22) in positionwhen said second lever is lowered, and said vertical tongue (32) beingpushed by said push rod (33) when said second lever (22) is in itslowered position, whereby the adjacent second lever (22) is pushed bysaid horizontal tongue (31).

1. A column carrying mechanism in a calculating machine or the likeapparatus of the type comprising toothed rack bars (1) and anaccumulator comprising gears (8, 9) having cam means (8a,9a), saidmechanism further comprising a first lever (11) arranged adjacent eachrack bar (1) and adapted to engage said cams (8a,9a) on said accumulatorgears (8, 9), said first lever being moved by one of said cams (8aor 9a)as said cam completes its one revolution, a second lever (22) adapted tooscillate vertically under the control of said first lever (11) andhaving a member (23) in engagement with said rack bars (1), a fixedcross bar (10) extending through a longitudinal slot formed in said rackbar (1), and a push rod (33) for actuating each second lever (22) whenthe associated first lever (11) is latched by said fixed cross bar (10)upon being lowered by said cam (8aor 9a) of said gear (8 or 9), saidmechanism being operative in such a manner that when the first lever(11) is lowered by the cam (8aor 9a) of the gear (8 or 9), the secondlever (22) is brought to a position confronting the push rod (33) andpushed by said push rod (33), whereby only the rack bar (1) associatedwith said pushed second lever (22) is lowered one pitch and concurrentlythe column associated with said rack bar is carried.
 2. A columncarrying mechanism as defined in claim 1, wherein said second lever (22)is provided with a horizontal tongue (31) and a vertical tongue (32),said horizontal tongue (31) being inserted below a fixed part (34) toretain said second lever (22) in position when said second lever islowered, and said vertical tongue (32) being pushed by said push rod(33) when said second lever (22) is in its lowered position, whereby theadjacent second lever (22) is pushed by said horizontal tongue (31).